NEW YORK – Bouncing back after three down sessions, Wall Street stocks saw solid gains yesterday in trading marked by bargain hunting as well as optimism after US officials lifted an indoor mask mandate.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) removed mask requirements for people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, a watershed moment in the pandemic that comes more than a year after the federal government recommended people cover their faces in public.
“If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said.
All three major US indices won solid gains following a mixed session in Europe and broad losses in Asia.
The CDC action “provided renewed steam for rebound rally that was losing its lustre”, said Briefing.com, alluding to a midday pullback in equities that preceded the mask announcement.
The Dow finished up 1.3% at 34,021.45. The blue-chip index is still down 2.2% for the week after losing ground the last three days.
Earlier, the Labour Department reported 473,000 new applications for jobless benefits made in the week ended May 8, fewer than expected and 34,000 less than the previous week’s upwardly revised level.
But wholesale price inflation in the United States surged 6.2% in April compared with the same month in 2020, the highest on record.
In other markets, bitcoin prices tanked, falling around 10% to under US$50,000 (RM206,275) following Tesla’s announcement that it will halt transactions in the cryptocurrency because of environmental concerns.
“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said in a tweet.
“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.”
Oil prices also pulled back as Colonial Pipeline resumed fuel deliveries after shutting down its network following a ransomware attack on its computer systems late last Friday.
Analysts said oil prices were pressured by fears the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates more quickly than expected due to inflation. – AFP, May 14, 2021
